Friday, 1 April 2016

Blog Tour ~ The Way We Were by Sinéad Moriarty

Jaffareadstoo is delighted to host today's stop on the The Way We Were by Sinéad Moriarty

Blog Tour

Penguin24 March 2016

Hello Sinéad and a warm welcome to Jaffareadstoo.

Thanks for taking the time to answer our questions so thoughtfully....

Where did you get the first flash
of inspiration for The Way We Were?

Back in the late 1980s Brian
Keenan and John McCarthy, among others, were kidnapped and taken hostage in
Beirut. They remained in captivity for over four years and when they were
finally released the two men talked about this incredible friendship that had
kept them sane. You could see the deep connection and love between them.

To this day they are best friends
and the bond between them remains. I was always fascinated by this and by the
fact that John McCarthy’s girlfriend campaigned so tirelessly to get him
released and then when he was released everyone presumed they’d end up
together…but in fact they broke up and he married someone else. I wanted to
somehow write a book with some of these themes worked into the storyline.

Without giving too much away –
what can you tell us about the story?

The Way We Were is about a
married couple, Ben and Alice, who have two teenage daughters and who love each
other deeply but are going through a bump in their marriage. Like all
relationships theirs has got a bit stale. Ben is feeling restless. He’s having
a mid-life crisis. Is this it? He wonders. He feels his life has become mundane
and is slipping through his fingers. He wants to shake things up, to feel
vibrant again. Ben craves adventure and when someone offers him the opportunity
to have that adventure he jumps at the chance. Ben’s fellow surgeon asks him to
go to Africa, to Eritrea to operate with another colleague, Declan. Ben knows
there is a risk involved as the country is very unstable, but he says yes. He knows
Alice will be worried about him, he knows it’s a dangerous place but he can’t
wait to go and experience something new with a fellow surgeon.Alice is furious
and worried sick that something will happen to him. It turns out she was right
and what happens next changes their lives forever. The book is really about
love and the power of memories. Alice needs to forget Ben to survive and be a
good mother to their daughters, but he clings to her memory to keep himself
alive. What will happen to their lives?
Can Ben survive? Will they ever see each other again? If they do, can they
possibly get back to the way they were?

Whilst you are writing you must
live with your characters. How do you feel about them when the book is
finished? Are they what you expected them to be?

Characters end up taking on a
life of their own. You know your book is working when your characters start
behaving in ways you hadn’t imagined. It means that the story has taken on its
own momentum. I love when that happens. You do live with your characters all
through each book and it can be
difficult to let go, but to be honest after many edits, copyedits and page
edits, you are often happy enough to take a break from them all.

Which character in the story did
you identify with the most?

Probably Alice as she is a wife,
mother and sister – all things that I am too.

What is your perfect writing day?

A rainy day when I’m in my office
and the words are flowing and I know my characters well and I feel confident
that I know where the story is going. FYI, days like this are very rare!